Friday 6 Mar 2026
EASTER WEEKEND: Network Rail to carry out vital track upgrades between London Waterloo and Clapham Junction
- Region & Route:
- Southern: Wessex
A reduced service will operate between London Waterloo and Clapham Junction over the Easter Weekend, Friday 3 to Monday 6 April, while engineers carry out vital engineering work.
Engineers will replace track at London Waterloo used by trains that run towards Reading, Weybridge via Staines, and Windsor & Eton Riverside. Trains for these destinations will start and finish their journeys at Clapham Junction.
Train services towards Woking and Basingstoke will continue to run, although passengers are advised to check before they travel, as other engineering work is taking place in the Eastleigh and Honiton areas.
What work is taking place
Engineers will replace switches and crossings, parts of the railway that allow trains to change track, just outside the entrance to platforms 20 to 24 at London Waterloo.
Teams will also carry out strengthening and refurbishment works on the railway bridge over Lambeth Road.
Engineers will also be installing scaffold crash deck to underside of footbridge on platforms 3-6 at Clapham Junction so that we can continue work on the footbridge from beneath whilst trains are running. This is part of a longer-term project to upgrade the busy walkway, used by thousands of passengers every day.
Changes to train services
On Friday 3, Saturday 4 and Monday 6 April the following services will start and finish their journeys at Clapham Junction:
- London Waterloo and Weybridge.
- London Waterloo and Windsor & Eton Riverside.
- London Waterloo and Reading.
- London Waterloo and London Waterloo via Richmond and Kingston.
Passengers can change at Clapham Junction for services to London Waterloo.
Queenstown Road (Battersea) will be closed throughout. Customers are advised to use other local stations.
On Sunday 5 April only, the line closure will be extended to Barnes. Train services between London Waterloo to Reading and Windsor & Eton Riverside will be diverted via Wimbledon and Twickenham.
Services between London Waterloo and London Waterloo via Richmond and Kingston will run between Kingston and Barnes only. Buses will replace trains between Clapham Junction and Barnes, calling at Wandsworth Town and Putney.
Services from London Waterloo to Hampton Court will not run.
Speaking on behalf of South Western Railway and Network Rail Wessex, George Murrell, Route Renewals Director, said: “We are asking passengers to check before they travel as services from London Waterloo are changing over the Easter weekend. London Waterloo is one of the busiest stations in the country, switches and crossings are heavily used and need to be replaced over time.
Carrying out this work will help give our passengers a more reliable railway as well as smoother journeys for years to come.
Contact information
Passengers / community members
Network Rail national helpline
03457 11 41 41
Latest travel advice
Please visit National Rail Enquiries
Journalists
Tom Moore
Communications Manager
Network Rail
07354531500
Thomas.Moore@networkrail.co.uk
About Network Rail
We own, operate and develop Britain's railway infrastructure; that's 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations. We run 20 of the UK's largest stations while all the others, over 2,500, are run by the country's train operating companies.
Usually, there are almost five million journeys made in the UK and over 600 freight trains run on the network. People depend on Britain's railway for their daily commute, to visit friends and loved ones and to get them home safe every day. Our role is to deliver a safe and reliable railway, so we carefully manage and deliver thousands of projects every year that form part of the multi-billion pound Railway Upgrade Plan, to grow and expand the nation's railway network to respond to the tremendous growth and demand the railway has experienced - a doubling of passenger journeys over the past 20 years.
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